New from Cambridge University Press!

Edited By Keith Allan and Kasia M. Jaszczolt

This book "fills the unquestionable need for a comprehensive and up-to-date handbook on the fast-developing field of pragmatics" and "includes contributions from many of the principal figures in a wide variety of fields of pragmatic research as well as some up-and-coming pragmatists."

Book Information

Over the past decade, Cognitive Linguistics has grown to be one of the mostbroadly appealing and dynamic frameworks for the study of natural language.Essentially, this new school of linguistics focuses on the meaning side oflanguage: linguistic form is analysed as an expression of meaning. Andmeaning itself is not something that exists in isolation, but it isintegrated with the full spectrum of human experience: the fact that we areembodied beings just as much as the fact that we are cultural beings.

Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings brings together twelve foundationalarticles, each of which introduces one of the basic concepts of CognitiveLinguistics, such as conceptual metaphor, image schemas, mental spaces,construction grammar, prototypicality and radial sets. The collectionfeatures the founding fathers of Cognitive Linguistics: George Lakoff, RonLangacker, Len Talmy, Gilles Fauconnier, and Charles Fillmore, togetherwith some of the most influential younger scholars. By its choice ofseminal papers and leading authors, this book is specifically suited for anintroductory course in Cognitive Linguistics. This is further supported bya general introduction to the theory and, specifically, the practice ofCognitive Linguistics and by trajectories for further reading that startout from the individual chapters.